It bled radioactive orange and came from the garden…

A good friend of mine this year relayed to me his conventional medical and unconventional journey of wart removal, nitro gylcerine to “freeze”, duct tape, a host of other attempts that I fear not to post here less someone attempt them as well.

His affliction was large and still is in a pretty visable spot, just under his right wrist. Not a lovely sight when first shaking hands.

After having a small cute little baby wart myself this summer and treating it with the natural exudate from a broken dandelion stem (the while milky stuff that comes out is a natural latex that is caustic to the offending skin growth) I mentioned this to him.

Not being the season for dandelions we wondered if there was something else.

There was and is.

Greater Celandine

Refered to me by Richard Walker (an experienced food forester [if you have a chance take a course with him]) this plant has 10x the strength of the natural latex found in danelion stalk. When Greater Celendne’s stalk is broken a bright florescent safety orange liquid is produced, and that my friend is the good stuff.

Orange plant blood is good for you?

In all it’s fluorescent glory.

After I picked some from Richard‘s budding 3 year old food forest near Osoyoos, BC, he mentioned that if I felt sleepy on my way to Calgary, AB I could rub some of the liquid under (NOT IN) my eye, football player style. The results would be increased alertness for up to 30 minutes as if I had mainlined two Red Bulls.

Observing the Distraction Laws of British Columbia I broke a healthy stem and sure enough orange exudate was produced. I rubbed some of the liquid under my eyes, looking like I just acquired a nice case of jaundice or liver failure.

I waited to see what happened.

And just like the joke about how many ADD kids does it take to screw in a light bulb? Wanna ride bikes? (Might lose something in blog format) I forgot about my observation of self energy levels and started to enjoy the music in the car more, as well as the passing license plate numbers and where they were from.

It wasn’t 10 minutes later that I clued into that I was alert without the manic Red Bull high.

Amazing.

Perhaps it was my virgin nature to this Great Celendine tribal war paint, however I remained alert for another 2 hours after that.

Very cool.

The lifeblood of Greater Celandine now in Tincture

Impressed by what this tiny plant was capable of and not having any warts to further test the plant I decided to do the next best thing – make a tincture as a gift for my friend back on the coast.

A tincture is a way to store what’s in a plant (constituent) for later use (for you permaculture geeks this is CATCH AND STORE energy in a primary form). Oil of Oregano? Great for warding off a cold and anyone else around you (it’s pretty strong stuff). Black Walnut Tincture? Awesome for cleansing the intestinal track of parasites and worms.

Some tinctures are made in water, alcohol, glycerine and this one is make in vinegar.

Organic Apple Cider Vinegar to be exact.

The oh so difficult process of making Greater Celandine tincture for external skin affliction use:

7. Keep mason jar and mixture in cool dry place for 10 days inverting (shaking) jar once a day.

8. Strain liquid and press plant matter to extract as much constituent as possible.

9. Send to buddy on Vancouver Island and ask politely for updates and pictures to continue blog.

10. Don’t forget to save seed…

And that’s it.

Simple, easy effect.

Remember we’ve grown up in a meritocracy based on what we can accomplish. Failure has been demonized to the point where if we don’t feel we’re perfect on the first try, paralysis sets in and we end up doing nothing. It’s the tyranny of the talented, paralysis of the perfect and all completely silly.

Fail early release often and remember that we’re in the current global situation because those before us failed. With intent and ethics, anything we try will be a better failure that what’s come before.